February 2014

The “politically correct” speech movement is approaching the problem in the wrong way. People want “freedom” not in the abstract but in order to live in what might be called a bigoted way. Their way. But when several disparate groups move to the same continent “freedom” acquires a secondary meaning: preventing one community from telling another community how to live.

Freedom cannot survive in either of these senses if the state gets into the act of enforcing tolerance.

The ideal of limited government and the separation between church and state was introduced to prevent any one group of bigots from using the coercive power of the state to impose their ideas on all the other bigots. While the state remains limited you have both kinds of freedom: the freedom to indulge in your peculiar bigotry and the freedom of each from the bigotry of the others.

Once the state is used to enforce “tolerance” it unavoidably builds the machinery for enforcing intolerance. The PC machinery itself will inevitably become captured by the most powerful group of bigots because it is worth capturing. Because setting the state policy becomes decisive.

This is what we are seeing now. That is the danger, not the individual bigotry. It should matter not a whit whether some “Christian” baker refuses to bake a cake or some “Muslim” cabbie refuses a fare or some Marxist academic group wants to boycott the Jews for so long as they cannot enlist the state in their program of coercion.

Individual bigotry is trivial to counter. I’ll just to another baker, another taxi etc. Go down the street and find someone who’ll take my money. It is state sponsored correctness that is frightening. But once the machinery of PC enforcement is built, then the tolerance will be obligatory.

Al Gore must be in the territory today. The temperature dropped. Spouseinbox decided to get a hat to keep the ears warm. We looked. We walked. We looked some more. I took a side trip to the food section for a couple of essentials and on return was informed that there were no ski hats available. That is not quite accurate. The did have a couple of hats – for kids with faces and animation included. Armed with the official position of the store, we went across the street. I waited in the car (which was warm) while spouseinbox went in to see if they had an appropriate cold weather attire for ear warmth. On return, spouseinbox informed me of the conversation with the clerk:

We are the caretakers of two cats – Jake and Pearl who grant us permission to care for them and meet their dietary needs. In return, they don’t tear up our bed. Jake is older, larger, and a male – the original occupant of this house compared with the newer upstart – Pearl. It is interesting to note a few behaviors of this pair: if you want a companion in the bathroom, shut the door. For that matter, if you want the cats somewhere, especially Jake, close the door almost fully, and he will appear a short time later.

Jake is the most vocal, unless they are having a fight, at which point the demons of terror growl from Pearl’s throat which is a very little deterrent for Jake. The low growl is usually followed by a hiss from which I have not detected any spittle yet, though the number of times this has been noted would represent quite a bit of moisture emanating from the oral cavity.

Pearl will instigate attacks against the much bigger Jake. This is observed as acceptable until Jake takes the upper position and has Pearl on the floor, at which point the voices and hiss are noted. She is fine with a fight, as long as she is on top.

We placed a water bowl on an oven tray to help keep the water in a reasonable local in the bathroom. Once this task was done, we noted the behavior of both cats at the water dish – drinking and scratching the oven tray while drinking. I don’t know if that improves the flavor, but it must do something as both cats perform this activity – even at night.

Kidinbox has a turtle – a rather large turtle. Jake takes the turtle as an item of interest and follows it around the room. Pearl backs up and provides behavior consistent with fear. Kidinbox also has a three legged cat. She had an accident in an engine and lost one of her appendages. We are a week post surgery right now, and this kitten has shown that one front leg is nearly as good as two. She hops on the bed and plays with the cat toys. The vet left instructions that she was not to irritate the suture line. We were to keep her from scratching the sutures. This was originally done with a little shirt which was pinned and slid over her head. Spouseinbox had the idea to make a shirt for her to fulfill this purpose. We went looking and finally settled on a preemy shirt which said “I run with the big guys.” We cut off the bottom of the shirt, hemmed it and sewed shut an arm hole. It fit. She is only 4 months old.

It is now evening here, and I or rather we are tired. There is a shingled roof on the shed now and a vent on the top. Spouseinbox and I were on the top of the roof this afternoon shooting in the remainder of the shingles and the roof vent. Now all I have to do is seal them, place the trim apply the soffit and finish the door. Hopefully, Pearl and Jake will keep their squabbles to a minimum tonight.

Posted by nurseinbox under Uncategorized | Tags: Home Health | Comments Off on The Joys of Ignorance – of the new employees, that is

Today was an interesting day. It was cold and wet here in West Texas. Combined, that made the roads equivalent to the rink Scott would use. I made it to the office after about half an hour of inching along the roads without bridges. Considering what I was experiencing, There was no way I wanted to try a bridge. So I made it to the office, and as the only one there, manned the phones as best I could. My regular job there is scheduler. The essence of this is taking the visits needed by the patients and matching them to the available nurse, therapist, or aide. There are several other factors which must be considered, but that is the bottom line. I have to be sure people who are receiving our services are seen. The phone rang:

me: hello

New Employee: hello it’s me. I’m supposed to see the boss this morning for some paperwork and don’t think I’ll make it. I have a relative sick and will be going to see them.

me: that’s understandable. Just keep safe and know the ice is horrible out there. It took me half an hour just to get here.

NE: I know. Actually, I don’t want to tell them, but the previous home health had me go to these out of the way places because I have a 4 wheel drive.

me: OK. Well I wish you well, and be safe. *click* (thinking: “Now that’s nice to know”.)

I found a site from a site that has a good description of islam. I copied the link of one of the pages above. There is a title page having subjects listed alphabetically which looked very well done. The mass of information available led me to provide this link and let you look at your leisure. Know that they are not our friends. They utilize familiar descriptions and words to sound similar, but when given the opportunity will reveal their true colors and demand servitude. That sort of sounds like some politicians doesn’t it? Maybe that’s why our congress critters have such a problem speaking out about the cloaked evil called islam – they are so similar.

(That being the case also is in the grouping of reasons I refuse to call islam a religion. It is a political philosophy originating as a tribal totalitarian philosophy masquerading as a religion and used as a means for leaders to maintain and control subjugates.)

I just finished a book by Jon Acuff called “Start”. It was quite well written and had all the feel of openness that is very appreciated. I came by way of this purchase via Dave Ramsey’s endorsement to discover Jon describes in the book working for the man. His description, at one point, was one of an employee defending a book title against the experienced questions of an ace in the field. I have met the man, but in a much different context. After one of his seminars on finances I caught him and asked about an idea I had been toying with for some time. Truth be told, it’s still sitting on the back burner. Dave was gracious enough to hear me out and advised forming an advertising campaign for the concept. I did, even put together a 501c3, but it shortly afterwards fell apart. Anyways, back to the book. My original thought was to purchase it for kidinbox, and then decided kidinbox could have it after it was slightly used by myself. I’m glad to have read it, but noted one lacking concept with which I have wrestled – spirituality. The book goes into the “voices” that one hears which are always negative and wreck one’s initiative towards greatness in their life. In my case, those voices were there. They are the ones saying, “you don’t have the background. Your ideas aren’t good enough. No one really appreciates that thought.” There also was another voice. It was simple and quiet. It consisted of a single instruction – finish Samson. I can’t explain it except in the context of God. The follow-up book which I think would be much harder to write is how to approach one’s career relative to the forces mentioned, and also the instruction of God. I say much harder as God works in an individual manner, so my instruction has no bearing on what someone else would do, or be instructed to do. I have a friend who was in our wedding. His instruction was to carry a cross. Literally. He and his spouse travel all over the country to speak to people and carry the cross with the message that God loves each person. I have another friend who with spouse travels the world discussing spirituality in marriage. This friend has already written two books and performed multiple speaking engagements from Texas to India. Each one was directed by God. Each one followed the direction given with behaviors differing from the average population. So yes, I fully appreciate spirituality as a definite component of one’s life and career or activity choice. It can’t be honed into another’s path. I can tell you what happened to me, but that has no bearing on your life as your spiritual walk is yours, not mine. There was a little voice in the back of my head saying to write this to Jon to see what he would do with it. Instead, I have written it here for you to consider.